THIS WEEK ON THE HOUSE FLOOR: House Voting to Kill Baby Animals in Alaska

On Thursday, House Republicans are taking a short break from their crusade to make our air and water dirtier so they can make it easier to kill bear cubs and wolf pups on federal National Wildlife Refuges. Yes, you heard that right H.J. Res. 69, introduced by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) would repeal a Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) rule that prohibits shooting bear cubs, killing wolf pups in their dens, and mowing down grizzlies from a helicopter in National Wildlife Refuges.

The state of Alaska claims that these so-called “predator control” activities will increase populations of game animals like elk, moose, and caribou. There’s just one problem – there is no scientific evidence to back up that claim. Not only are these practices disgraceful, they are also ineffective. This reasonable rule would prohibit some of the most unethical tactics being employed to kill keystone predators, ones that no hunter who plays by “fair chase” rules would ever use anyway.

Polling data show that most Alaskans do not support the use of these methods on National Wildlife Refuges, where only four percent of trophy hunting in Alaska occurs, anyway. Contrary to Republican claims, FWS has sound justification in the law for this rule, both to meet its responsibilities under its enabling legislation and to maintain the natural diversity of Refuges in Alaska as required by the Alaska National Interest Lands Act (ANILCA).

H.J. Res. 69 is not about protecting states’ rights, it is about allowing one state to decimate wildlife populations that all of our tax dollars are paying to conserve, on lands that belong to every American.